QRant: Saudis Prove India Needs a Spine, Not a UNSC Seat

Was the rape of two Nepalese women not a “humanitarian” ground to deny safe passage to the accused Saudi diplomat?

India did not explore all options before granting passage to the Saudi diplomat who confined two Nepalese women as his sex slaves.

The Saudi diplomat who raped two Nepalese women on Indian soil, has been allowed to leave the country. Majeed Hassan Ashoor was accused of sodomizing these women, even offering them to his other expat friends. All this, at knife point. They were kept in confinement, and starved, for three long months.

We’re called the “Rape Capital of the World”… shouldn’t that translate into zero tolerance for rape? Or are we happy by merely banning documentaries that talk about it?

We have a simple question for Sushma Swaraj: were the grounds for detaining this Saudi diplomat not “humanitarian” enough for you? But the BJP is merely continuing a Congress tradition of cheerful goodbyes.

There was Ottavio Quattrochi, who was lucky enough to know the Gandhis. Union Carbide’s Warren Anderson even got a private chopper. And the Italian marines, too, may get away with murder.

Majeed Ashoor got away simply because India observes the Vienna Convention more consciously than the muscle-flexing Saudis. Even Devyani Khobragade was detained by the Americans for under-paying her maid, despite having full diplomatic immunity.

All of India’s goodwill for coming to Nepal’s rescue after their earthquake is now gone.

Why did we facilitate his escape? What are we so afraid of? That the Saudis would stop selling us oil? That without them we will lose the war on terror? Or do we want a worse human rights record than Saudi Arabia?

We in India don’t need a United Nations Security Council seat, we need a spine.